Zakariya Al-Agha has been a member of the Fatah Central Committee since 1994, and a member of the PLO Executive Committee since 1996. He formerly served as the head of the PLO Department for Refugee Affairs. Since 2015 he has served as Fatah's General Commissioner of Mobilization and Organization in his place of residence, the Gaza Strip.

“In response to the latest British statements regarding pride in the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) and the fact that the British government is celebrating it and not apologizing for it (see note below –Ed.), Erekat emphasized: ‘There is no greater shame than to celebrate a colonialist promise in the 21st century. Britain should have used the opportunity to correct its sin, apologize to the Palestinian people for the historical injustice it caused to it, do justice with the victims through compensation among other things, recognize the State of Palestine, and to support the removal of Israel’s immunity, demand an accounting of it, and make it pay the price of its occupation’…
PLO Executive Committee member and Director of the Department for Refugee Affairs Zakariya Al-Agha said: ‘On exactly this day in 1917, Britain issued the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) that gave the Jews the right to establish a national homeland on the land of Palestine... This ominous promise is what led to the expulsion of our people from its homes and property after massacres and crimes were committed against it as part of an international plot.’"
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“The PLO Department for Refugee Affairs yesterday [Oct. 19, 2017] condemned the British government’s announcement [that it will be] celebrating the 100th anniversary of the issuing of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), which falls will take place on Nov. 2, 2017...
In a statement yesterday, PLO Executive Committee member and Director of the Department for Refugee Affairs Dr. Zakariya Al-Agha opposed the British government’s declaration [that it will be] marking the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Promise, and its call to senior Israeli officials to participate in the celebration ceremony. He noted that the announcement of the ceremony is considered a blow to the Palestinian people, and it turns Britain into an enemy of the principles of justice and humanity... He emphasized that Britain’s refusal to apologize and its insistence on holding a ceremony with senior Israeli officials on the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Promise will be met by official Palestinian action, by putting Britain on trial and dealing with this case before the international courts. This is if Britain will not take back its opposition to apologizing and acknowledging that the Balfour decision was a historical mistake.”Click to view bulletin
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Headline: “Palestinian condemnations of the terror attack against the Egyptian army in Sinai”
“The Palestinian forces and activists yesterday [Oct. 16, 2017] condemned the terror attack in which six Egyptian soldiers were killed (see note below –Ed.)...
Palestinian Liberation Front (i.e., member of the PLO) political bureau member Muhammad Al-Soudi said in a press release that the crime that was committed against the heroic Egyptian army soldiers in northern Sinai is not unrelated to the phenomenon of terror in the region, which is sustained by the aggressive forces in the region and prime among them the Zionist enemy, which is focused on taking apart the Arab nation, its states, and its capabilities, and keeping it busy with disagreements that divert it from the struggle against [the Zionist enemy] and its aspirations in Palestine and the entire Arab region.”Click to view bulletin

Headline: “Al-Agha launched the activities of the summer camps in the southern districts (i.e., Gaza)”
“PLO Executive Committee member and Director of the Department for Refugee Affairs Zakariya Al-Agha yesterday [Aug. 12, 2017] announced the opening of the activities of the summer camps in the southern districts (i.e., the Gaza Strip) [under the title] Jerusalem and the Return, in cooperation with the popular committees for refugee camp services, women’s centers, and the Women’s Commission of the [PLO] Executive Office for Refugees. At these camps, of which there are 17, 1,500 boys and girls are participating, including Palestinians who were uprooted from Syria… Director of the Women’s Commission of the [PLO] Executive Office for Refugees Mahasen Abu Jaber explained that the name of the summer camp, Jerusalem and the Return, was selected to express the suffering of our people in occupied Jerusalem, to express resistance to the policy of Judaization that the occupation state is implementing in order to erase our Palestinian identity, and to emphasize the adherence to the right of return.”

Headline: “Al-Agha in a letter to the UN Secretary-General: The Nakba is the crime of the era”
“PLO Executive Committee member and President of the [PLO] Supreme National Committee to Commemorate Nakba Day (i.e., “the catastrophe,” Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) Zakariya Al-Agha described the Nakba as ‘the crime of the century.’ Al-Agha said this yesterday [May 15, 2017], Nakba Day, in a letter he gave together with members of the Committee to Mark Nakba Day to UN Secretary-General António Guterres via Head of the UN Office in Gaza Gernot Sauer.
Al-Agha said in the letter that the painful consequences of the Nakba that befell our people continue to this day. This is so because the occupation government opposes the return of the Palestinian refugees to their homes, despite the decisions published by the UN that order their return to their homes from which they were expelled in 1948 (i.e., UN Resolution 194, see note below)… Al-Agha emphasized that the return of the Palestinian refugees to their homes from which they were expelled is a holy historical and legal right, and an individual right that is anchored in international law and the decisions of the international bodies.”
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Headline: “Al-Agha demanded that the government of Britain immediately recognize the Palestinian state”
“PLO Executive Committee member and [PLO] Director of the Department for Refugee Affairs Zakaria Al-Agha yesterday, Thursday [March 2, 2017], called on Britain to immediately recognize the Palestinian state. These statements were made during his visit to the Popular Refugee Committee at the Al-Shati [refugee] camp in Gaza…
Al-Agha referred to the 100th anniversary of the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), and again emphasized his demand that the government of Britain take steps that will compensate for its crimes. He added: ‘The time has come for this government to recognize the Palestinian state immediately, and to act to help the Palestinians end their suffering and establish their independent state in the Palestinian territories that were occupied in 1967.’”Click to view bulletin

The Balfour Declaration of Nov. 2, 1917 was a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Baron Rothschild stating that “His Majesty's government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” and is seen as the basis for later international commitments to establish the State of Israel.

Official PA TV newsreader: "Under the auspices of [PA] Prime Minister Dr. Rami Hamdallah, the [PLO] National Association of the Martyrs’ Families [of Palestine] held a Palestinian Martyrs’ Day [event] in Gaza, during which it was demanded to follow the path of the Martyrs until the end of the occupation and the establishment of the Palestinian state." Poster on stage with photos of terrorists: “Martyrs’ Day = The end of the rift:” Yasser Arafat, Ahmed Yassin (Hamas), Abu Ali Mustafa (PFLP), Abu Jihad - Khalil Al-Wazir (Fatah) Official PA TV reporter: "A ceremony was held In Gaza with a representative of [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas, and under the auspices of Prime Minister Dr. Rami Hamdallah." TV caption: “Zakaria Al-Agha, representing President Mahmoud Abbas” Abbas’ representative, PLO Executive Committee member, Zakaria Al-Agha: "We must send our blessings to the souls of our Martyrs who followed the path of freedom and with their pure bodies created bridges upon which we cross toward free and independent Palestine, whose capital is Jerusalem… We remember these great leaders and repeat our promise to be loyal to their memory and the memory of all of the Martyrs of Palestine and the Martyrs of the Arab nation. We will continue to follow their path, the path of the struggle and the revolution..." PA Minister of Labor Ma’moun Abu Shahla: "We bow our heads before the souls of these Martyrs who with their pure blood recorded magnificent pages in the history of the defense of our holy land."

Headline: "On the 99th anniversary of Balfour: A call to Britain to support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state"
"The PLO Department for Refugee Affairs called on Britain to act in a serious manner to support the demands of the Palestinians to establish their independent state whose capital is Jerusalem, and to return the refugees to their homes in accordance with the international resolutions. The Department for Refugee Affairs said today, Monday [Oct. 31, 2016], in a press release for the 99th anniversary of the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) that the time has come to end the international negligence that relates to this illegal entity, 'the occupation,' as a state above the law.
PLO Executive Committee member and Director of the Department for Refugee Affairs Zakaria Al-Agha clarified that the Balfour Promise is invalid due to the illegality of its content, as the subject of the promise is the treaty with Zionism to expel the people of Palestine from their homes and to give it to foreigners…"

(AFP) “The Train of Return in Bethlehem”
Text on first train carriage: “There is no statute of limitation to our right of return”

“The buses of return in Ramallah”

(AFP): A mass procession in Nablus on Nakba Day”

Headline: “On Nakba Day: Train, ship, and buses for the return”
“The [Palestinian] residents of various places in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and refugee camps in the Diaspora marked the 68th anniversary of the Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) yesterday, by sounding a siren for 68 seconds, and in mass processions…"

This report was published during the 2015-2016 PA-led terror wave, in which since 13 September 2015, 29 Israelis have been killed (including a Palestinian and a foreign worker), and 290 injured - 25 of them seriously - in terrorist attacks, most of them civilians. As of Jan. 18, 2016, there have been 109 stabbings, 37 shootings, and 22 car rammings. Most of the Palestinians that have been killed were killed while attempting to stab or shoot at Israelis. [http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/ForeignPolicy/Terrorism/Palestinian/Pages/Wave-of-terror-October-2015.aspx]

Headline: “The Abdallah Al-Hourani Center listed the Israeli violations in 2015”
“The Abdallah Al-Hourani Center for Research and Documentation of the PLO published its annual report regarding the main Israeli violations against the Palestinian people in 2015… During the past year, the Israeli occupation authorities have killed 181 Palestinian civilians, including 32 children, 9 women, 26 Gaza Strip residents and 3 residents of the areas occupied in 1948 (i.e., Israel). It should be noted that 144 Martyrs (Shahids) have ascended to Heaven in the popular uprising since the beginning of October [2015], and most Martyrs were executed in the field and in cold blood, under false pretexts intended to terrorize the unarmed [Palestinian] civilians.”

Headline: “Al-Agha: We say to those who await Fatah’s death – you must wait forever”
“A large crowd of Fatah movement members took part yesterday [Dec. 31, 2015], Thursday, in the 51st torch lighting [ceremony] (on the 51st anniversary of Fatah –Ed.) at the Unknown Soldier's Square in Gaza, shouting enthusiastically and calling for national unity and the ending of the internal rift [between Fatah and Hamas]. Fatah Central Committee member Dr. Zakaria Al-Agha gave the movement’s main speech… and noted that the young Palestinians turned to confrontations with the occupation in the West Bank cities after Israel broke off the future of the process of an agreement with the PA leadership. He added: “Amid the popular uprising that has been going on for 3 months, led by Fatah members, the enemy still turns its back on our people’s rights, and insists on carrying out racist and fascist acts, in all their different forms.”

"Fatah Central Committee member and General Commissioner of Mobilization and Organization in the southern districts (i.e., in the Gaza Strip) Zakaria Al-Agha... stated in a speech he gave during his meeting today [Dec. 23, 2015], Wednesday, with a delegation of secretary-generals of the General Union of Palestinian Women in Gaza, in the presence of members of the National Action Commission, that a few days separate us from the 51st anniversary of the outbreak of the Palestinian revolution, and the Launch of the Fatah movement (Intilaqa). This movement that turned the Palestinian woman into a global symbol of the struggle and of giving, and a focus of research... Al-Agha praised the role of the Palestinian woman and her endless giving throughout the history of the Palestinian revolution, during which she proved her ability to fight and give, and she sacrificed female Martyrs (Shahids), prisoners, and wounded on the altar of freedom, independence, the end of the occupation, and the establishment of an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital... Likewise, he noted that the Palestinian woman is not absent from participation in the ongoing popular uprising in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and stands at the head of the ranks of the confrontation with the occupation, which has led to the deaths of a number of female Martyrs. Thus the Palestinian woman offers another example of sacrifice, devotion, and giving for the homeland in the confrontation with the Israeli occupation and its aggression against the holy sites."Click to view bulletin

Intilaqa - the "launch" of Fatah on Jan. 1, 1965, when it carried out its first terror attack against Israel, attempting to blow up Israel's National Water Carrier.

Headline: "On the anniversary of the Balfour Promise: Erekat call on Britain and the world to end the occupation"
“Secretary-General of the PLO Executive Committee [Saeb Erekat] called on the countries of the world that have not yet recognized Palestine, and first among them Britain, to recognize a Palestine with sovereignty on the 1967 borders with its capital in Jerusalem, and to end its Israeli military occupation…
These things were stated in Erekat's press release on the 98th anniversary of the ominous Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), in which he renewed his call for Britain to take legal, political, and ethical responsibility for acquiescing to the Zionist movement's request to establish a national homeland for Jews on Palestine's land, and the fact that it paved the way for, and fully supported, one of the largest ever acts of ethnic cleansing in 1948 and the expulsion of our people by force. Likewise, he called on it [Britain] to act seriously and responsibly together with the international community to correct the mistake, as our people is still paying the price of the consequences a century later…"

Headline: “Gaza: Fatah and the [Islamic] Jihad agree that the popular insurgency needs to be supported”
“The Fatah movement and the Islamic Jihad movement in Gaza agreed to support the conflict with the occupation which is taking place in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Likewise, they agreed to protect the current nature [of the conflict], as what is happening is one of the characteristics of legitimate resistance…

Fatah Spokesman Fayez Abu Aita said that the meeting with the leadership of the Islamic Jihad was constructive and open, and that they discussed the mass insurgency in the Palestinian territories and ways to support it. He noted that the two delegations reviewed together the ways to support the resoluteness of our people in the Palestinian territories.

[Fatah Central Committee member Zakaria] Al-Agha emphasized the depth of the connection between the two movements, and said that it was agreed to hold another meeting during the next week in order to continue the dialogue regarding current issues, to maintain the media discourse, and to focus it on the battle against the occupation.”

Headline: “Al-Agha demands that the UN intervene and put an end to the Israeli aggression”
“[PLO Executive Committee member Zakaria] Al-Agha condemned yesterday [Oct. 10, 2015] in a press release, the Israeli escalation [of violence] against our people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and the excessive use of force which resulted in the death of 7 Martyrs (Shahids), and more than 369 wounded [Palestinians]. He expressed condolences to the families of the Martyrs who were killed today [Oct. 11, 2015] in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, while defending Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa [Mosque]. He added that the Israeli military escalation and the threats made by [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and his army’s chief of staff [Gadi Eisenkot], to repress the growing mass uprising in various ways, will not deter our people, its fighting masses, factions, and forces, from continuing the path of struggle, adhering to the option of resistance, and defending themselves until the Israeli occupation’s defeat… He also emphasized that the battle for liberation has begun, and will only end when the occupation ends. Al-Agha praised our people’s mass uprising in Gaza, in the refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan, and wherever it is present, in support of the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Jerusalem, who are subjected to barbaric Israeli aggression…”

“Fatah Central Committee member and Mobilization and Organization Commissioner of the Southern districts Dr. Zakariya Al-Agha condemned the Israeli escalation against the Palestinian people on the West Bank and in occupied Jerusalem, the last [example] of which was the execution of two young people (i.e., the terrorists Muhannad Halabi and Fadi Alloun) in occupied Jerusalem.”

Muhannad Halabi - 19-year-old Palestinian terrorist who killed 2 Israelis, Rabbi Nehemiah Lavi and Aharon Bennett, and injured Bennett’s wife, Adele, and their 2-year-old son in a stabbing attack in the Old City of Jerusalem on Oct. 3, 2015. Following the attack, he was shot and killed by Israeli security forces. Prior to his attack, in a post to his private Facebook page, the terrorist referred to recent terror attacks as part of a "third Intifada,” and said that it was a response to Israel’s actions at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and that the Palestinian people would not “succumb to humiliation.” This is a reference to the PA libel that Israel is plotting to take over and destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to the PA's portrayal of Jews praying on the Temple Mount as "an invasion of the Al-Aqsa Mosque."

Fadi Alloun - 19-year-old Palestinian terrorist who stabbed and injured Israeli citizen Moshe Malka (15) near the Old City of Jerusalem on Oct. 3, 2015. Alloun fled and was shot and killed by Israeli police.

“PLO Executive Committee member Zakariya Al-Agha called on Jordan and Lebanon to reevaluate their decision to bar Palestinian refugees uprooted from Syria from entering [their countries], and to allow them to enter their territories (i.e., Jordan and Lebanon’s) in order to ease their suffering. He emphasized the temporary nature of the Palestinian presence on their lands as guests until they return to their homes [in Israel]… He emphasized that the PLO strongly opposes settling the refugees in any Arab or foreign country. In addition, he said that Jordan would not be an alternative homeland for the Palestinians, and that the compass of the Palestinian refugees points only toward the return to Palestine – to their lands and homes from which they were expelled in 1948 – in accordance with [UN] resolution 194.”

“Member of the PLO Executive Committee and head of the Refugee Department [in the PLO] Zakariya Al-Agha demanded that the international community put an end to the historical injustice caused to the Palestinian people and end the tragedy of the Palestinian refugees who have been living in refugee camps for 65 years in difficult conditions…
Al-Agha said in a press release to mark the 65th anniversary of the adoption of [UN] resolution 194, that the refugee problem is at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict…
He asserted that the PLO has a principled and firm position regarding the refugee issue that hasn’t changed or been altered: adherence to the right of return of the refugees to the lands from which they were uprooted in 1948 – in accordance with UN resolution 194 – and opposition to settlement programs [of refugees in their current countries of residence] that target this right…
Al-Agha emphasized that establishing a just and comprehensive peace in the region requires that Israel recognize the rights of the Palestinian people to return to its lands from which it was uprooted and its right to establish a Palestinian state with full sovereignty within the June 4 [1967] borders with Jerusalem as its capital.”

Note: UN resolution 194 (Dec. 11, 1948), Paragraph 11, states that "refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return." While Palestinian leaders argue that Paragraph 11 guarantees the right of return for all Palestinian refugees and their offspring, Israel claims that the resolution has been misinterpreted and only calls for some refugees' return under certain conditions.

This picture was taken in the offices of the Refugee Affairs Department in Gaza during a meeting between UNRWA official Filippo Grandi and the Head of the [PLO] Department for Refugee Affairs, Dr. Zakariya Al-Agha. A large map on display shows all of Israel and the Palestinian areas under the heading “Palestine” (written in the top left corner of the map).

Headline: "On the 94th anniversary of the cursed promise [Balfour Declaration, 1917] - personalities and bodies called upon the world to correct part of Balfour's sin by supporting the Palestinian demand at the UN"
"The world must correct part of its sin - thus concurred national figures and bodies which published announcements yesterday on the occasion of the 94th anniversary of the Balfour promise [Balfour Declaration, 1917] ... Member of the PLO Executive Committee Zakaria Al-Agha demanded that the United Kingdom vote at the Security Council in favor of recognizing a Palestinian state on the June 4, 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital... In a press release yesterday, Al-Agha demanded that Britain assume its responsibility towards the Palestinian people and make amends for its mistakes, since it is the main culprit for its suffering, and to admit its grave mistake against it in allowing the Jews, by means of the cursed promise, to seize control of the Palestinian land and to establish their state on the Arab ruins and the Palestinian villages which were destroyed in 1948. ... This was said in a press release by the department yesterday, on the 94th anniversary of the promise which Britain gave to the Jews, to give them a national home in Palestine, which has caused our people suffering, oppression and injustice continuing to our own times."Click to view bulletin